The CTU will host a rally and
march in downtown Chicago on March 27, just a few days before Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett is set to meet her March 31
deadline to announce the final list of school actions.

Preparing for the worst, CTU is educating parents and activists on the proper practices of non-violent protests. Police arrested
10 protesters in November for rallying against school closings outside
City Hall. They were charged with violating a Chicago trespassing
ordinance.

“It’s the willingness to engage in radical acts that
are challenging the core of what’s going on,” said Lisa Fithian, a
political activist and scholar, who, for decades, has worked as a
community organizer on a range of issues. “We need to create conditions
that allow for the transformation for us to be more liberated.”

Sponsored by CTU and the Grassroots Education Movement, Fithian was brought in to tutor and inspire Chicago’s activists at St. Agatha Church, 3151 West Douglas Blvd.

“The
entire system that we live in is designed to keep us from accessing the
power that we need,” she said. “If we had all the power we wouldn’t be in this situation right
now ... These guys do a lot of things to keep us from getting the power we
need to get better schools and better education."

Here's more from Fithian:

Facing a $1
billion budget deficit, CPS is addressing
building utilization in the next wave of actions, saying nearly 140
schools in the district are more than half empty. The school system has
classroom space for more than 500,000 students, but just over 400,000
students are enrolled, according to CPS.

A list of 129 schools that face closure was released
last month, and the Commission on School Utilization, a committee
charged with helping Byrd-Bennett evaluate which schools to close,
issued their final recommendations earlier this month. Among other suggestions, the commission recommended CPS close or consolidate a maximum of 80 schools.

“People
who work in the schools and rely on public schools will oppose the mass
closings by any and all peaceful means — this will be a bombshell, these
closings, to our schools and our communities,” said CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey at the training.

In addition to yesterday's event, the CTU is hosting a second training session Saturday morning on Chicago’s South Side. The 10 a.m. training will take place at Pleasant Gift M.B. Church, 4526 S. Greenwood Ave.

“(School
closings are) not something we’re prepared to accept without a fight,”
Sharkey said. “Tonight is about us training our people in the methods of
non-violent civil disobedience because we’re going to take this fight
as far as we have to, to defend our community schools.”

The
impending school closures disproportionately affect minority students
though, and many activists say school actions are discriminatory in
practice.

A majority African-American study body exists in 117 of the 129 schools that face the chopping block. According to an analysis by the Chicago Sun-Times, that translates to the statistic that nine out of 10 students facing school closures are black.

“We
have a large population of minority students and special education
students, and I’m going to do whatever I can do to stop the school from
closing,” said Cielo Munoz, a special education teacher at William Penn Elementary in Chicago’s West Side neighborhood of North Lawndale. Munoz attended
the non-violent protest training and said she plans to attend the March
27 rally.

Penn, which according to CPS data is more than 80
percent African-American, was included on the list of schools that may
close. Munoz said she fears her special education students may not see a
smooth transition to a new school.

“(CPS) can’t be so crazy to
send black and Hispanic kids all over the city,” she said. “I worry
about my students every day, they have severe disabilities and this is a
pretty unsafe neighborhood.”